Michael Vick

Scandal isn't new to professional sports.

That probably has something to do with the fact that human beings, with all their flaws and imperfections, are the players.

Where there are people, there's wrongdoing, like gambling.

Some examples:

The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series

Cincinnati Reds manager Pete Rose

Green Bay Packer Paul Hornung

In each of these cases, the guilty parties were active participants in the games in question or the sports they bet on.

The consequences of their behavior varies.

Eight men on the Black Sox and Pete Rose were banned from baseball for life.

Paul Hornung was suspended for a year and returned to the NFL.

Hearing a steady stream of rumors about NFL players being involved with gamblers, Commissioner Pete Rozelle ordered an investigation. The 3½-month probe became a sensation, and Karras was at the eye of the storm. Hornung's name rarely came up, at least publicly.

In January 1963, Hornung was called to Manhattan by Rozelle. Said Hornung, "It was one of the few times I've ever come to New York that I wasn't looking for a date."

Like Karras, Hornung took a polygraph test and passed it, admitting he had bet on games but never against his own team.

Finally, on April 17, 1963, Rozelle issued his sentences, suspending Hornung and Karras indefinitely and fining them $2,000 each. Lions coach George Wilson and five other Detroit players also were fined. While Karras and the Lions protested their punishments, Hornung was contrite. During his suspension, Hornung often called Rozelle's office to clear everything from his attendance at the Kentucky Derby to his writing a magazine story about the NFL.

Hornung and Karras were reinstated 11 months later, on March 16, 1964. Hornung played all 14 games that year, scoring five touchdowns and making 12 field goals en route to a team-leading 107 points. Even though his production fell off during the Packers' 1965 and '66 championship years, Hornung still had enough left to victimize the Colts in a big way again, scoring a team-record five touchdowns in a 42-27 win in 1965 at Baltimore. He also ran for 105 yards in the Packers' 23-12 championship victory over the Cleveland Browns.

Hornung ended up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in spite of his indiscretions.

"It was a carefree, thoughtless thing I did," Hornung said.

Still, his celebrity went relatively untarnished. Perhaps it was because he was so forthright in admitting to his mistake. And maybe it was because he used his year off to work the lecture circuit, cultivate endorsements, broadcast football games and ... well, as he put it, "women weren't exactly running away from me because of my suspension."

Some individuals survive their scandals and some don't.

Time will tell how the scandal of NBA referee Tim Donaghy "who is being investigated for betting on games that he worked and making calls to affect the point spread in games over the past two seasons" unfolds.

And then there's Michael Vick.

His gambling didn't involve his sport. From a public relations standpoint, he would have been better off if it did. The brutality of dogfighting and more than that, the truly shocking way that losing or unwilling were dogs were killed reaches far beyond the sports world.

Animal lovers who never heard of Vick know him now.

John Goodwin of the Humane Society said the manner in which losing or unwilling dogs were killed was especially troubling.

State and federal officials load coolers of evidence into a truck as they search the grounds behind a home owned by Michael Vick in Smithfield, Va., on July 6.

"Some of the grisly details in these filings shocked even me, and I'm a person who faces this stuff every day," he said. "I was surprised to see that they were killing dogs by hanging them and one dog was killed by slamming it to the ground. Those are extremely violent methods of execution -- they're unnecessary and just sick."

Vick and the others are accused of "knowingly sponsoring and exhibiting an animal fighting venture" and conducting a business enterprise involving gambling, as well as buying, transporting and receiving dogs for the purposes of an animal fighting venture.

About eight young dogs were put to death at the Surry County home after they were found not ready to fight in April 2007, the indictment said. They were killed "by hanging, drowning and/or slamming at least one dog's body to the ground."

The NFL knows that the Vick scandal has the potential to destroy the 2007 season.

The fact that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell refused to let Vick report to the Atlanta Falcons' training camp does not bode well for Vick's future this season.

Goodell noted Vick won't be allowed into training camp until the league completes a review of Vick's recent indictment by a federal grand jury for allegedly participating in an interstate dog-fighting enterprise.

The charges stem from a dogfighting ring that allegedly was conducted at Vick's house in Virginia.

He is scheduled to appear in federal court Thursday for a bond hearing and arraignment. The court date coincides with the first day of training camp for the Falcons in Flowery Branch, Georgia.

Goodell informed Vick that the review would be completed as soon as possible and that the quarterback's full cooperation is expected.

"While it is for the criminal justice system to determine your guilt or innocence, it is my responsibility as commissioner of the National Football League to determine whether your conduct, even if not criminal, nonetheless violated league policies, including the Personal Conduct Policy," Goodell wrote in a letter to Vick.

Is there any doubt that Vick violated the Personal Conduct Policy?

Writing for Sports Illustrated, Don Banks predicts that the "chances are at least 50-50 that he won't suit up in 2007, barring either a dismissal or the case being accelerated to trial by mid-fall."

I'm not a gambling person but I would bet that the chances are greater than 50-50 that Vick will be suspended.

I think people can forgive individuals' human foibles when the person readily admits to the wrongdoing and is genuinely repentant, like Paul Hornung.

Obviously, the dim-witted and bitter Pete Rose took the wrong path and he's paying the price.

But when it comes to Vick, his alleged crimes are so barbaric that they're in a different league.

His alleged activities weren't mainly self-destructive behaviors like gambling or drinking or drugs.

Vick's alleged cruelty to dogs reveals a truly sick personality. Such a monster for a quarterback won't cut it.

I think the NFL will weather this scandal unscathed as long as Vick stays off the field.

If Vick plays, I'm certain that protesters will dog him for every game for the rest of his career.

In that case, not only Vick would suffer but so would the entire NFL.

Vick is finished and that's good.